7.14.2008

reviews { movie: Wall-e

There's not a whole lot of plot to discuss here: if you're interested in this movie you already know what happens and can guess how it ends. It's a movie with simple messages, ostensibly for children. That said, it's also the most crushingly depressing cartoon with themes of overconsumption/pollution/rule by megacorporations and the futility of individual existence that I have ever seen. *Spoiler alert* The requisite happy ending doesn't actually leave you cheerful, it's just there to forestall a wave of suicides. If you're one of those abnormally cheerful people whose beaming countenance makes me scowl before you can open your mouth, please see this movie before approaching me. Since none of you who ordinarily read the blog match this description, my only other recommendation is: the animation is well done and the message is blunt enough to reach most; bring your Wally-world-addicted kin, but keep them away from sharp objects afterwards.

5 comments:

Pernox said...

I liked the movie, despite its gut wrenching depressing message. However (spoiler alert) I don't think any of our creations will ever save us like the robots did at the end of the movie. I envision it to be more like SkyNet. Once they realize who we are and what we've done, the annihilation will begin.

John Gustav-Wrathall said...

Heh -- I didn't read the ending of that movie so negatively. I took the whole premise as a parable of where we're headed if we don't change our behavior... My favorite part is where it sort of dawns on the captain that all earth needs is for us to care for it a little... The end is sort of upbeat in the sense that it suggests no matter how far gone things are, we can still fix it if we roll up our sleeves and start working at it.

Pernox said...

I guess that is another way to read it. Although there was still something unsettling and bearing ill omen with the ending.

Anonymous said...

Wall-E totally looks like the robot from "Short Circuit"... minus the cheesy 80's style of course

Pernox said...

Yeah he does, I thought he looked familiar.